Full transcript
0:02So in this lecture we're going to talk
0:04about the civil rights movement from the
0:08mid1 1940s up through the mid to late
0:111960s.
0:13And really what I'm going to cover here
0:16is how the post-war civil rights
0:20movement, so the civil rights movement
0:22after the Second World War really took
0:26off because of a convergence of a number
0:29of different uh historical forces, but
0:32that in general many Americans during
0:36this time period began accepting the
0:39idea that black Americans deserved to
0:43mainstream into American society. Um,
0:46however, goal of that effort to
0:50mainstream black Americans into middle
0:53class American society
0:56really was something that ultimately
0:59uh, a lot of civil rights workers
1:01themselves questioned. Uh, a lot of
1:03people within the movement, particularly
1:05younger people by the 1960s, questioned
1:08whether or not the goal of fitting into
1:11white America was worth actually
1:13fighting for, which of course led to a
1:15conversation about if you weren't going
1:18to fit into white America, then what was
1:21the goal of gaining rights? So, without
1:25further ado, we'll go ahead and get
1:27right into it. Let's start with the
1:29period between really the mid1 1940s and
1:31the early uh 1950s. There are a couple
1:35of different things that really help
1:38awaken the civil rights movement. And
1:40let me be clear, the civil rights
1:42movement doesn't start in the 1940s. Um
1:46I mean, if we really want to take a long
1:49picture of it, the civil rights movement
1:51starts around the time of the American
1:54Revolution. Uh it starts about the time
1:57that people of color fight either
2:00against the uh Americans or with the
2:03Americans in an effort to gain their
2:05freedom. Um in the 20th century, the
2:08civil rights movement really picked up
2:11most of its um its urgency in the 1890s
2:15and early 1900s.
2:17uh but it's been quiet during the great
2:20depression and the second world war
2:22created special circumstances that
2:25allowed thei it to become something many
2:29more people could sort of accept uh and
2:32uh listen to civil rights activists. So,
2:36one of the most important things that
2:38happens
2:39is that uh President Harry Truman, the
2:43the person who took office after FDR,
2:46began
2:48um forwarding the idea of executive
2:50activism. Now, all I mean by that is to
2:52say is that as president, Harry Truman
2:57realized that it was in his own best
3:00interests as somebody who was going to
3:02run for election in 1948. He's serving
3:06out FDR's term and he's going to have to
3:09run for election 1948. He he understands
3:12that he can position the Democrats as
3:15friendly to civil rights, which is a
3:17historic shift, right? The Republican
3:19party had always been the party of
3:21abolution. It had been the party that if
3:23you were black, you voted for. FDR had
3:27changed that during the 1930s with New
3:30Deal programming. Uh, and Truman now
3:35wants to sustain this New Deal coalition
3:38of traditional Democratic voters mixed
3:41with black voters, Jewish voters, uh,
3:45and urban industrial workingclass
3:48voters. So along those lines, one of the
3:51things that Truman does to
3:54act as a bit of an activist for civil
3:57rights is uh
4:01make sure that the Oval Office publishes
4:04a pamphlet which is entitled to secure
4:06these rights in 1946.
4:09What to secure these rights did was call
4:12for an end to segregation
4:14uh by and large both in the private and
4:17public sector. So remember this is a
4:20time when the military is is still
4:21segregated. So the you have the
4:23president of the United States who's
4:25running for election saying the
4:27Democrats should end segregation in the
4:30United States. Very clearly this is an
4:33effort to appeal to black voters uh to
4:36maintain the votes they started casting
4:39to the Democrats in the 1930s
4:42to secure these rights made news in both
4:44white black newspapers. It got a ton of
4:46radio coverage. It's really a big part
4:50of the public political discussion in
4:53the late 1940s. In fact, Truman speaking
4:56from the Lincoln Memorial 1947
4:59said that uh we must make the federal
5:03government a friendly, vigilant defender
5:05of the rights and equalities of all
5:07Americans. Our national government must
5:10show the way. So there was really very
5:12little guessing about where Truman stood
5:15in terms of civil rights. This did
5:18create problems within the Democratic
5:20party. Uh the so-called Dixierat revolt
5:23of 1948 saw
5:26South Carolina Senator Strom Thurman
5:29bolt of the party with a number of other
5:31pro-segregationist southern politicians.
5:34Uh and essentially what the Dixocrat
5:36revolt was about was about holding the
5:39Democratic party hostage until Truman
5:43removed this integrationist
5:46policy from the Democratic platform.
5:49uh they're kind of gambling the
5:51dixierats that they can back Truman
5:53down, that he's too afraid of losing
5:56their votes for president. Um at the end
5:59of the day, it doesn't work. Uh Truman
6:01campaigns in Harlem. He becomes the
6:03first presidential candidate to do that.
6:06He gets a lot of new Jewish voters to
6:09vote Democrat as well with his language
6:12on uh equality and civil rights. and he
6:15narrowly wins that presidential election
6:18in 1948, thus proving that
6:22integration was an issue that wouldn't
6:25hurt white politicians if they supported
6:28it. And there was again like a kind of
6:30broad context for more white Americans
6:35expressing sympathy for the civil rights
6:38movement if not, you know, actually
6:40participating in it. Um, a lot of
6:42Americans believed during the Cold War
6:44that segregation was a black mark on of
6:47American society, especially at a time
6:50when Americans were making an argument
6:52that capitalism and democracy were
6:55superior to communism and socialism. Uh,
6:58there was also a a question about
7:00integration fixing poverty by increasing
7:04black access to educational
7:05opportunities. A lot of Americans
7:07believed that America would be able to
7:10combat uh poverty that still existed in
7:14the United States at the time. Again, a
7:16lot of this is wrapped into an effort to
7:19demonstrate the basic fairness of
7:22American society and the economy
7:24relative to Soviet claims that America
7:27didn't live up to its own values.
7:30Now, the NAACP had spent the better part
7:34of the Second World War pointing this
7:36very fact out that the United States uh
7:40said it was a fair uh society, but in
7:43fact it wasn't. um they had participated
7:46in the double V campaign, a victory
7:49against racism at home and fascism
7:53abroad, saying that if the United States
7:56wanted to fight a war against
7:58authoritarian rule, it should make sure
8:00that it lives up to those values at
8:02home. So the NAACP
8:05building off of its activism during the
8:08Second World War, building off of the
8:11black veteran experience in the Second
8:13World War in capitalizing on the
8:17increase in support for civil rights as
8:20represented by Truman as an executive uh
8:23activism made a number of gains during
8:27the 1940s.
8:29Uh first and foremost, the NAACP
8:32successfully
8:34um opened up doors to better jobs in the
8:37federal government. Uh the late 1940s
8:40will see segregation ended in federally
8:44funded jobs. Uh the NAACP was successful
8:49in opening up higher education and
8:52access to medical school and law school
8:54to more people of color during the 1940s
8:57and early 1950s. Uh this was something
9:00that would help as the de next decade
9:03opened up. It would help train new
9:05leaders in the civil rights movement.
9:08And then of course in the mid1 1950s the
9:11NAACP played a leading role in the Brown
9:15one and Brown two decisions. Uh the
9:17Brown one decision involved four cases
9:20from Virginia, South Carolina, Kansas,
9:22and Delaware. It happened because NAACP
9:25lawyers worked with Thood Marshall,
9:28future Supreme Court justice, to find
9:31parents who were willing to put their
9:33kids in danger. They were willing to
9:35risk their own jobs as parents to enroll
9:39their kids in white schools and be
9:42denied because then that would lead to
9:43the opportunity to sue those school
9:47districts. In the first Brown decision
9:49of 1954,
9:51Marshall used sociological evidence that
9:53showed segregated education created
9:56lower self-esteem. Thus, meaning
9:59segregated education was not just bad
10:01for black students, which frankly few
10:04people really cared about, but also it
10:06was created a danger for all of society,
10:09which was something everybody created uh
10:11worried about. Right? And so in the
10:13first Brown decision, Marshall is able
10:16to convince the justices that
10:18segregation created more problems than
10:22it fixed.
10:24So the Supreme Court decides in 54 and
10:26that first Brown decision that PI vers
10:30Ferguson of 1896, the decision that
10:32upheld segregated society was now null
10:35and void. However, it did not really
10:39give much direction as to how
10:42integration in schools was to follow.
10:45That's why the second Brown decision is
10:47handed down in 1955. That second
10:50decision, the court said that
10:52integration should follow with quote all
10:55deliberate speed, which meant on the
10:58timeline of the people who were in
11:00charge of actually integrating schools,
11:02which was not the federal government,
11:04but local school districts. That second
11:07decision had a lot to do with a document
11:11called the Southern Manifesto. The
11:14Southern Manifesto
11:16was a document signed by 100 congressmen
11:20from the South. It was a petition where
11:23they refused to hold their constituents
11:28uh accountable for following through
11:30with integration. They tell their
11:32citizens back home in southern states
11:35not to abide by the court ruling of
11:39Brown One and Brown two. And in fact,
11:41they are defiant openly during this
11:45time. That southern manifesto was also
11:48followed by a court decision called
11:50Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of
11:52Education. That's 1958. The
11:54Shuttlesworth decision upheld the idea
11:57that integration
11:59only applied to public schools, not to
12:02private schools. So, it's a barrier
12:05because southern school districts could
12:07begin selling public buildings to
12:09private LLC's to build private schools
12:13uh so that they could maintain white and
12:15black education. You just make a private
12:17white education system in a public black
12:20education system. By the mid1 1950s,
12:25people like Dwight D. Eisenhower who was
12:27president uh at the time said I don't
12:31believe that you can change the hearts
12:32of men with laws or decisions. So by the
12:36time 1958 rolls around, this period of
12:42executive activism has basically closed,
12:45right? Uh from the federal government's
12:48perspective, they have done everything
12:50they can, but they can't actually force
12:53people to integrate. And that's kind of
12:57the root of what we're talking about
12:59today is that during the 1940s and 50s,
13:01the American political and economic
13:03actors boosted the long-running civil
13:06rights movement. By by the late 1950s,
13:09it would become important for grassroots
13:11actors to come to the forefront to
13:13implement and test legal change.
13:16So broad grassroots support for the
13:19movement during the late 50s and early
13:211960s led to a pleel of new laws that
13:25would actually do the things that
13:27Eisenhower said couldn't be done, change
13:30the way people thought about race in
13:31America. But implementing those laws saw
13:35core values of the civil rights movement
13:37tested and ultimately questioned.